Tuesday, October 02, 2007
9:28 AM
Hi all!
Below are some points raised during sharing last week. Do read through them in your own time. Lets continue praying that we will continue growing as cell, encouraging and edifying each other as one body of Christ ya! :)
in His love
Rachel
Sharing – Philippians 2:9-18
Do we hold onto an attitude of bitterness and complaint? Or do we hold onto a spirit of joy? How do we hold onto a spirit of joy?
o Trusting in God – in order not to complain but how do we trust? (Felly)
o We know first of all that trusting in God is different and certainly not trusting in man (Sam)
o Trusting in God and (consequently) having joy is a conscious choice on our part (Ivan)
o Note that having a spirit of joy sets us apart from the world – Paul writes that we are not to complain and argue SO THAT we may shine as stars reason being it is so normal for people to complain and argue everyday for reasons either legitimate or not. What differentiates us from the world? It is precisely this assurance and joy we have in Christ that naturally allows us to not begrudge and hold onto a spirit of bitterness and frustration.
How do we work out the gospel in our daily lives?
o Look at ourselves as Christians and at our obedience
o Look at Christ (Phil 2:13)
o This helps us to see that we are without excuse because God is working in us to obey Him. We need to ask ourselves, am I allowing God to work in me? Am I allowing myself to surrender to God? When I surrender and see how God works in me, I am wonderfully surprised (Mel)
o Working out of the gospel is not confined to the act of sharing it with others alone – rather the working out of the gospel takes place throughout our entire lives, right from the start of every waking moment till when we go to sleep (Rachel)
o We must remember that we are called to shine our lights TO THE WORLD – we cannot focus on being a Christian only when we’re in church but work out the gospel in reaching out and being a friend to our non Christian friends.
o Be on the lookout to build platforms with our friends; we could “test water” by for e.g. telling people about our day in cell and check out their response
o As a student, we should maintain a spirit of excellence such that we may be able to help other students – this differentiates us from the competitive herd
o We can also look up to other stronger Christians as motivation to help us work out the gospel better in our lives (Ivan)
+ AMEN
